Symbiotic
by diabolicalrat
Summary: SasuSaku. They help each other in the only way they can.


A/N: Please heed the Mature rating. Minor lemon ahead. Don't bitch at me because "you didn't see it coming."

This is my longest oneshot so far.

Info:  
Pairings: SasuSaku  
Rating: R, for sexual content

I do not own Naruto.

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**sym****·****bi****·****o****·****sis** – _noun_: a relationship between two people in which each person is dependent upon and receives reinforcement, whether beneficial or detrimental, from the other

His breathing is soft in sleep.

It's so much different from everything else about him.

When Sasuke came back to Konoha two months ago, I truly believed that he had forgotten me. To this day, I'm still not sure, even as I'm at the edge of sleep with my head on his naked chest with my pink hair sprawled about it, his untroubled breathing my lullaby.

His return had not been a triumphant one like some would expect. He had come to us battered, bruised, and one eye short after "serving his purpose," that is, killing his brother, doused in blood both his own and his sibling's. I had envisioned that moment in my dreams, in which he returned a new man, willing to try to forge bonds again. I had imagined a reunited Team 7, too.

Neither of these came true.

For starters, two weeks later, we lost our sunshine. That bright, blonde boy with only love in his heart… found himself destroyed by his own means of power, without ever knowing that Sasuke had returned, and without ever becoming Hokage. His funeral was the largest gathering in Konoha since the Third's… even Sasuke came, which was the one and only time that anyone but me had seen him since his return.

I had been assigned the duty of caring for the last Uchiha, so I saw him routinely. During these brief, impersonal visits, I would quickly check his wounds and change his bandages while he gazed blankly in any random direction with a hazy onyx eye and remained utterly silent. I would try to make small talk with him, and he never responded… then, after Naruto died, I gave up.

A month passed, and my obligation to him was drawing to a close. I entered his house through the front door, which was unlocked as it always was. I mused to myself that a lock would only be detrimental to the house's impassible defense that was Sasuke himself.

Every time I came to his house, including this one, it seemed that nothing was ever moved, including the Uchiha himself. I wondered how his vitals stayed at the exact same numbers time after time, since he couldn't possibly be eating correctly while keeping things in such an order.

I made my way to his bedroom where he lay, dazed as usual, on his bed, his head inclined fractionally against the headboard. He didn't bother to utter any sort of recognition to me, though I suppose the fact that he hadn't decapitated me already was his way of saying hello.

Out of respect for just a fellow human being, I decided to inform him of this day's significance. "Good afternoon, Sasuke… this is the last time I'll be here to bother you." I forced a fake smile, even though he was not looking at me, as I approached his bedside. "Your wounds healed pretty quickly… and you since you seem to have no interest in an eye substitute, I guess there's nothing else we can do for you."

I softly lifted his arm and unraveled a long white bandage from his elbow. "This one is completely healed." I repeated a like process with bandages on his other arm, legs, and bare torso, and he remained a rag doll that I could poke and prod without ever getting a reaction.

Now that I had started talking, I found it hard to stop. "These past few weeks have been hard for both of us, huh? I can't imagine what it must be like for you…"

All but one of his bandages had been checked. The remaining was his empty eye-socket, of course, the one I abhorred even the thought of. I leaned onto the bed and gently unraveled the bandages that had been recently rewrapped meticulously by Sasuke himself. He remained expressionless throughout my ministrations, even though I struggled to keep a steady stomach as I examined the pink hole on the left side of his otherwise porcelain face.

It, too, seemed decently healthy, and I replaced the bandages with a medical eye-patch of sorts. "Well… that's it… all done." I removed the rubber gloves that adorned my hands and put them into my bag. "I… guess… I'll see you around."

As I was turning around to leave, I slipped on something that was apparently a glove that had missed the bag. I whirled uncontrollably and found myself haphazardly colliding into Sasuke as I fell onto his bed. A surprised look had climbed onto his face, the first emotional response I'd seen from him since he had returned. I could feel my own face reddening, and I scrambled to get back up, but was restrained by some unknown force.

My eyes darted around, finally meeting his solitary one, as I struggled around trying to stand again, but it was his arm over my back that kept me pinned to where I was with my chest on his and my legs swinging helplessly over the edge of the mattress.

Upon realizing the source of my restraint, I stilled and stared awkwardly at him, waiting for him to do something, anything. It was at that moment that I realized the close proximity of our faces, and how his heartbeat had most definitely increased by a margin compared to its normal_thud, thud, thud_.

I could feel his steady breath washing over my face, and it was obvious that his clever mind was formulating something. "S-Sasuke…" A half lidded eye shifted from my right to my left eye, then began to examine the rest of my face, seemingly searching for something. Whatever it was, he must have seen it, because he actually spoke to me then.

"Sakura." His voice was strained and weak from lack of use, but it was exactly how I remembered it. It sent chills through my veins, and I started to tremble slightly. "Thank you."

"I… it was my job… it was… nothing…" I couldn't draw my gaze away from his stoic face.

I can't help but wonder, to this day even, if he is something inhuman. Maybe he is a Hercules of sorts: half human and half god. Because there is no way that an average human being could entrance me with a gaze like this. Had it been anyone else, I would have been able to simply pull myself away when his arm released my back and dropped to the side.

But this was Uchiha Sasuke, and I thought for a second that I saw a sparkle of sadness cross through his eye as I attempted to move.

I stilled, and my eyes scanned his face then. Black strands of untidy hair framed his pale, empty face. Equally dead lips remained motionless, and I couldn't fight away the urge to run my fingers along them. A purple shade still covered the area around the eye-patch in the skewed, yet precarious shape of two fingers above and a thumb below.

"Why are you still here?" Sasuke's voice was no more than a whisper, the puffs of air against my face sending more chills down my spine. His words sounded more like a statement than a question, and I honestly had no answer for him. I still don't.

Nor do I have an explanation as to why I kissed him then.

It wasn't so much a kiss of love or infatuation, merely raw emotion, I think. It was probably the same thing that made him kiss me back. It was inexperienced, but it wasn't long before we were expertly ravaging each other's mouths with teeth and tongue, his hands running virally along my spine. The passion was nearly tangible as we both allowed some of our pent up steam to suddenly burst out in the form of this contact.

Any self-control I had had up until this point was lost that day, and before I knew it, he had too. His muscular body had found its way on top of me. He pulled at my shirt, and we broke our kiss to remove it quickly. It was tossed to the side, and he began to suck and bite at my neck, leaving marks and drawing blood as I writhed below him.

At that moment, not a second before, I realized where this was going. His hips ground against mine as his hands fumbled below me to rip off my bra, which they literally had seconds later. Something pressed against my leg, and I impulsively spread my legs apart in response, not considering what I was getting myself into. No, at that point in time, the only things that mattered were me, him, and this increasingly intense friction between us.

He abruptly clamped his mouth upon a nipple, and I let out a gasp, digging my nails into his shoulders, to which he hissed in pain. One of his hands had found its way to my rear and he pulled me even closer to him, rubbing us together nearly painfully. After a few moments, he had had enough, and unfocused hands struggled to pull my pants and panties down as his mouth ground against mine.

This heat had taken over my mind, and I hastily returned the favor. He kicked his boxers and pants aside, and suddenly stopped.

The room was deathly silent, with the exception of our feverish panting. Unable to speak for multiple reasons, I simply laid there beneath Sasuke, waiting for one of us to regain our composure.

Gently, he propped himself up one hand, and the other ran across my stomach and along my leg. His eye gazed at me, an unreadable expression on his face. When I made no response, he led a finger to my entrance, and waited for some kind of affirmation.

Still, I was paralyzed, so he slid his finger in until he came to the barrier. At that point, something like embarrassment coated his face, the realization of my virginity striking him head on. I shook my head and laughed half-heartedly, but he remained confused.

"P-please… don't stop…" He opened his mouth to speak, but I continued. "I… need this… and so do you… so please…"

He nodded slightly, and he did continue, thrusting one, two, and then something else inside of me.

We screamed together that night at the end, venting all of our anger on each other for the first time, and certainly not the last. That's how it began, this strange relationship of ours.

I know that our screams were not only for each other, but for our lives. I screamed for the loss of my best friend, and for all of my frustrations with life, all of the ones that I couldn't grin and bear. Sasuke screamed for all of the hate in his life, and for all of the love that he has been deprived of for all these years, even though he'd never admit it.

So that's how the following month went. Every night, in secret, I would return to his house, and we would be one to scream our pain away. I speak of this affair to no-one, because only we can understand it. We don't talk much because there's nothing to say, but we need each other.

I run a shaky finger along the contours of the muscles on his chest in my thoughts. Sasuke stirs under my touch, but does not wake.

I know that he will never be emotionally mine. I know that we can never be that picture-perfect boyfriend-girlfriend type of couple. I don't know if we could even be considered a couple. But I help him with the only thing I can offer him, and in the same respect, he helps me.

And that's enough for me.


End file.
